I just started racing online again with PCars and AC after a few years off. Previously I raced rFactor, GTR2 and GTL. People were pretty respectful for the most part. After racing the AI in both PCars and AC getting re-acclimatized I decided to go back online.

Started with AC. Mainly a server racing 458 GT2's at Monza. What a bunch of animals. Everyone trying to win going into Rettifilo. Even starting from pit lane it is damn near impossible to pick your way through the wreck without getting tagged. Do these people even watch real racing? Do they know what a yellow is? Making a pass into Ascari is dicey at best. Yet some idiot tried it on me under a yellow and took me out. Then proceeded to call me an effing noob!

PCars is worse. I was doing a GT3 race at Donington over the weekend and what a nightmare. Some clown spun at the Craner curves and spent the next few laps sitting there, broadside, going back and forth for a few laps trying to take people out. At Le Mans, I came across an idiot just parked just past the apex at the Dunlop Curve for lap after lap. First time was bad as you didn't see him until the last minute.

Does anyone else experience this?

Rant over. I would like to join a league where drivers are a little more respectful but I'm not that good. I do it for fun.

There have always been wreckers, even in the old days of GPL. I never personally quite understood this given how hardcore it was.

I can't say I've done a huge amount of public racing in recent years, but I have done the odd league here and there, mostly on Simbin stuff and more recently Xbox since I believe the gap between consoles and PCs is now starting to close. League/community racing is the only thing I am interested in these days for the very reasons you describe.

I'm feeling old now, but in the old days there were all these utilities that you needed to tweak things, particularly in GPL's later days (anyone remember GEM+?).

Nowadays there are things like Steam for easy install and I think that's lowered the bar. That's not to say thats a bad thing, but there are pros and cons to everything.

But definitely look for some organised racing. Leagues are still a good place regardless of ability and the communities around them will have single events and community nights if you want less formal racing, but you will find other like-minded individuals looking for clean racing.

PS: After a few minutes looking around the dusty corners of the interweb there are still active GPL leagues and GPL Rank is still being updated! Go team!

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Successfully crashing a probe into the moon is like saying you successfully swam the English Channel by having your corpse wash up on the beach.

For where two or three are gathered together in racing game, there is a crash in the midst of them.

(That's a play on Matthew 18:20.)

Crashers, whether deliberate or incompetent, seem to be the scourge of online racing in general. For this reason I preferred to pretty much just do it with a friend because we knew we'd be respectful of one another. Sure, we both wanted to win, but we weren't going to be unsporting about it and even communicated our relative positions to avoid wrecks, as I play in cockpit view and can't see him in certain areas near my car.

As said above, finding leagues is the best way to go. You might have to find a few before you find one that is where you like (some are overly strict, some are pretty relaxed) on the scale of things, but it's really the only way to go for serious racing enthusiasts.

For a lot of the leagues, your skill level doesn't necessarily matter much. There are a few leagues that are pretty intense top-level stuff, but most of them are more focused on clean racing and host a wide range of skill levels. I'm on Xbox with Forza for it, but our league usually has between 20 and 30 people running per week, from top 50 leaderboard guys through people who barely get to play, so it's quite easy to find someone who is near you in skill level.

You just have to shop around a little bit. Maybe look at the results from a previous round of their series, then go hot lap on the same track and see if it seems like they are way ahead of you or if you fit in.

If you want online racing with consequences for actions, iRacing is the industry leader.
There are still nutjobs but you can find good racing in most classes once you get out of Rookies classes and get your license and rating above them.

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"We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true." -Robert Wilensky

Most leagues are full of rules, time ins and time outs, really rather dull unless you like that sort of thing. Vene fun formauls are beset with rules and club type nonsense.

Some people are into that sort of thing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chunder

I dont race online much at all these days, but in the past the best races I have had have always been in public servers, you do get good ones quite a lot on some games.

I have had some great races and some stupid wreckfests, and sort of enjoyed both really.

Horses for courses. People get different things out of racing games, hence the existence of public servers and non-affiliated organised leagues. You can even have private lobbies on the more mainstream consoles such as Forza etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chunder

It's a game after all and if you take it that seriously you will never be happy in publics, and deserve to be with like minded nerds in leagues.

Sorry, but thats that way I look at it.

Being happy in public servers not a goal I have ever set to be honest. They are what they are and I accept that.

People want different things from their virtual racing. I love motorsport, that is why I am on this site. I don't have the money and/or time to do it for real (and virtually too these days) so sim racing is the next best thing I can do. For that reason I prefer not meeting another car driving the wrong way trying to take me out or people not knowing what the brake pedal is at T1 at Monza etc. It takes away from the immersion somewhat.

If that means I 'deserve to be with like minded nerds in leagues' then so be it. For me it's not the penance that is being implied.

__________________
Successfully crashing a probe into the moon is like saying you successfully swam the English Channel by having your corpse wash up on the beach.